David Schmidtz : biography

1955 -

David Schmidtz (born 1955) is Kendrick Professor of Philosophy and joint Professor of Economics at the University of Arizona. He grew up in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada, and earned his PhD at Arizona under the direction of Joel Feinberg and Allen Buchanan also studying with Keith Lehrer and Holly Smith, and taught at Yale and Bowling Green State University before returning to Arizona. He taught first-year Property as a visiting professor at Florida State University College of Law in 2007. In 2014/15, he will be a Phil Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.

He is author of Elements of Justice (Cambridge, 2006), Rational Choice and Moral Agency (Princeton, 1995), co-author of Social Welfare and Individual Responsibility (Cambridge, a “For & Against” book with Robert Goodin) and editor of a volume on Robert Nozick in the Cambridge University Press "Contemporary Philosophy in Focus" series. He also co-edited Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works (Oxford) with Elizabeth Willott; a second edition of this book appeared in 2011. His first book, The Limits of Government: An Essay on the Public Goods Argument (Westview, 1991), combined his interests in moral philosophy and economic analysis.

He has published in many journals, including the Journal of Philosophy, Ethics, and Political Theory. Over fifty of his articles have been (or are in the process of being) reprinted, including Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Turkish, Italian, Romanian, Czech, Slovak, and German translations. Thirteen of his essays (one previously unpublished, on Peter Singer's approach to moral theory) were published by Oxford Press as Person, Polis, Planet in 2008. A Brief History of Liberty (Wiley-Blackwell), with co-author Jason Brennan appeared in 2010. He is now working on Markets In Education (Oxford) with Harry Brighouse.

Schmidtz has also written on rational choice theory and environmental ethics.

He also is founding director of the Freedom Center http://www.freedomcenter.arizona.edu/] at the University of Arizona, and editor of the Cambridge Press journal Social Philosophy and Policy.